They were sat in Teddy’s mom’s apartment, in the kitchen; they had been talking for half a day. Billy suddenly looked at his watch: “Crap! I need to get home.”
Teddy glanced up at the clock on the wall and said, “Why not just stay here?”
Billy’s breath caught in his throat. “Oh, I- Um. No, that’s- I don’t think your mom would-”
Tedddy called through the door to his mother’s room, “Mom, can Billy stay the night?”
“Sure,” came the muffled reply.
Teddy turned to Billy and grinned, “It’s cool.”
“You’re allowed to just do that? If I want a friend to stay over, I have to get written permission from my mom.”
“Will they be cool with you staying here without asking?”
“Probably not. They don’t like me staying out late,” Billy said, unsure if this was true- he’d never asked before. “I don’t think it’s even worth bothering.”
But then Teddy reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, “Do you want me to ask? Your parents love me.” Billy found himself nodding mutely and then he heard Teddy saying, “Hi, Mrs. Kaplan, it’s Teddy. Would you mind if Billy stayed the night here?” Billy held his breath. Teddy smiled wildly, “Great. Thanks; I’ll return him to you in the morning.” He hung up. “You’re staying the night!”
“Excellent,” Billy said, half-heartedly.
They walked into Teddy’s room, which looked like it had been hit by an avalanche of clothes. Teddy sat down on the bed and motioned for Billy to sit next to him. He obliged, his heart pounding and then nearly bursting when Teddy put his arm around Billy’s shoulders. They kissed and Billy felt anxiety form a brick in his gut.
Billy asked, “Does your Mom know you’re-” he lowered his voice “-gay?”
Teddy nodded. “I told her last year- she didn’t really care, to be honest.”
“Does she know I’m,” he hesitated, fractionally, “gay?”
“I think so.”
“But you haven’t told her?” Teddy shook his head. Billy sighed, “Am I that obvious?”
“Do you mind being obvious?”
Billy bit his lower lip- he knew he wasn’t meant to care. “It’s just- I feel a lot of people knew before I did.”
“Yeah, you were a bit late to the game.”
“Wait, do the guys know? On the team.”
Teddy nodded. Billy groaned and threw himself backwards on the bed theatrically. Teddy laughed, “It’s not a bad thing- it’ll make it easier to come out.”
Billy stared at the ceiling, “I guess.”
Teddy lay down next to him and kissed him again. Billy’s breath hitched.
“We’re not going to do anything, you know.” Billy turned to look at Teddy, who repeated, “We’re not going to do anything. Like, sexual. You’re clearly very uncomfortable. Please relax.” He stroked his head tenderly. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“Teddy, you can’t sleep on that floor, you’ll catch something.”
Teddy smirked and then rolled off the bed, landing on the floor amidst a pile of tshirts. “It’s actually quite comfortable. And besides, this way I can sleep naked.” Billy turned bright red at the thought. Teddy laughed then jumped up and kissed him on the forehead and said, “Just kidding. Though-” here he flashed Billy his abs, “-Maybe one day, if you’re lucky.”
Eventually, Billy got lucky. Very lucky indeed.